Politics on Trial: Five Famous Trials of the 20th Century Book

A Book Report by Rev.Dr.Jude Arnold

The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal written in 2008 by J. Patrick O'Connor is the first book to "convincingly show how the Philadelphia Police Department and District Attorney's Office efficiently and methodically" set up the best-known death-row inmate of our time. Abu-Jamal, an innocent man, has been forced to pay for the death of Officer Faulkner; and O'Connor explains why. Abu-Jamal's trial was irrefutably a travesty of justice, riddled with abuse, and a total sham.

I really appreciated the time O'Connor took developing the political climate of the City of Philadelphia in the early 1970's when MOVE was founded by John Africa. "Move's members were controversial, confrontational, belligerent and profane" using to the max the term motherfucker. O'Connor explains "they justified this obscenity by arguing that the real obscenity is the system that allows racism, exploitation, and injustice to flourish.... It is the rape of the land, the pollution of the environment, the betrayal and suffering of the masses by corrupt government that is the real obscenity." Abu-Jamal was among the reporters who covered the many courtroom trials of MOVE and John Africa.

O'Connor, himself, a crime reporter, editor and publisher, thoroughly outlines what actually transpired on Dec. 9, 1981, at the trial, during the appeals process and reveals the truth about the most hotly debated case of the 20th century, including the identity of the killer and Abu-Jamal's innocence. Although, he writes in the language of hard facts, it is a very interesting read.

I became familiar with Abu-Jamal and the Free Mumia Movement when I was in Pennsylvania for the July 4th,1999 Rainbow Gathering. The Family of Living Light joined Mumia supporters in forming a drum circle around the prison. I did not attend but began researching his case, reading his brilliant writing, listening to his beautiful voice on the radio and listening to what others say about him. I am currently one of 3 administrators of a Free Mumia Group on Facebook - My point is that I am a supporter of the Free Mumia Movement and if you are not, you may or may not enjoy reading this book as much as I did.

The headlines in the Philadelphia Daily News Dec. 10, 1981 ran a story headlined "The Accused: Friends Can't Fathom 'Brilliant' Newsman as Murder Suspect." Abu-Jamal, 27 years old, had gotten interested in the religion of Jah Rastafari while attending unltraprogressive Goddard College. "I can't tell you how stunned I am about this," respected Philadelphia Daily News columnist Chuck Stone said the day after the killing. "Abu-Jamal has always been a peaceful person. You would never hear him raise his voice. When you would call his home, he'd say "Peace," before talking." Stone further reported after visiting Abu-Jamal, that he "vigorously denied a reported confession" but rather insisted, "they tried to kill me that night!"

Wesley Cook, a twin, born April 24, 1954 changed his first name to Mumia at age 14 following his father's death by heart attack. "When Mumia became a father at age seventeen and named his son Jamal, he dropped his surname and became Mumia Abu-Jamal" which means Mumia father of Jamal. Mumia's mother worked as an inspector at Sears; his oldest brother was a master sergeant in the army, his twin was serving in the army at that same time and his sister was a nurse. At age 16, Abu-Jamal was named "lieutenant of information" for the Philadelphia chapter of the Black Panther Party. "The day after his appointment, a picture of him at Panther headquarters ran on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer. A prophetic poster over his left shoulder read "Free All Political Prisoners." "Abu-Jamal's FBI file, released in 1991, contained approximately seven hundred pages. From age fifteen, when he was placed on the FBI's Security Index of subversives to be rounded up and jailed during times of national crisis, Abu-Jamal was one of the most surveilled citizens in the nation." Mumia was working part time as a cab driver at the time of his arrest.

At the trial, the prosecutor built his case on 3 points: a gun registered to Abu-Jamal found at the scene, the eyewitness testimony of a prostitute and a felon, and Abu-Jamal's alleged "confession" at the hospital (where he was unconscious from an unexplained gun shot to the chest and severe beatings inflicted by the police that fateful night.) The prosecutor "put himself on the slippery slope of intentionally using perjured testimony, a felony in and of itself. It could not have been more obvious."

There was absolutely no forensic evidence. The defense had destroyed the witnesses credibility. The confession would have been the easiest to debunk. But for several reasons,O'Connor clearly outlines, the defense attorney, never made these counterpoints. He never prepared an opening statement nor a witness interview. He never took advantage of any opportunity to really address the jury on behalf of his client. He was rambling, directionless, "completely lost and befuddled."

"On July 7, 1996, HBO premiered the one-hour documentary Mumia Abu-Jamal:A case for Reasonable Doubt. It left little doubt that Abu-Jamal's trial raised grave questions of fairness: less than $1,500 was provided for defense expenses such as experts and investigators; Judge Sabo was known as a 'hanging judge'; the prosecutor used eleven peremptory challenges to exclude blacks from the jury; the jury ended up with only two blacks; the defendant could not have been shot the way the prosecution said he was; forensic work was practically nonexistent; the "confession' was concocted; the prosecutions' main witness lied about what she saw."

"Two things account for the unprecedented national and international interest in this case. First and foremost is the man himself. Despite twenty-five years of the bleakest existence possible in isolation on death row, Mumia Abu-Jamal remains what he has always been: an articulate, compassionate righter of wrongs. When he eventually walks free, it will be in large part because he wrote his way out, one essay at a time. The second thing that makes his case so compelling to such a wide audience is that his trial represents such a monumental abuse of government power to frame one man that it really says no citizen is truly free until this wrong has been undone."

In the 1995 Post-Conviction Relief Act Hearings with retired Judge Sabo at age 74 still presiding, Abu-Jamal's attorneys raised all three grounds of appeal allowed, "claiming that Jackson [the original court appointed defender] provided ineffective counsel, that the judge improperly suppressed evidence from the jury, and that new, important evidence not available at trial had been uncovered. In mid-1989, Arnold Beverly, a prisoner at Pennsylvania State Correctional Institution had come forward to announce he was present when Faulkner was shot and that Abu-Jamal had not shot him. He also knew that the prosecution's main witness, the prostitute, "turned tricks" for the police. He also knew that Abu-Jamal "had been shot and wounded and that he had bled at the scene." Later, "Beverly confessed that he himself shot P.O. Faulkner... that someone else fired the first shot that hit P.O. Faulkner... then Beverly ran across the street and shot the officer in the face. He stated that Abu-Jamal arrived later and did not shoot anyone. According to Beverly, Mr. Abu-Jamal was shot by a police officer other than Faulkner." A nationally recognized expert in administering polygraphs, Charles Honts, swore "Beverly confessed to him during the polygraph examination and that the polygraph test results supported the truthfulness of Arnold Beverly's confession that he - and not Mumia Abu-Jamal - shot police officer Faulkner."

O'Connor includes the full text of Mumia's and his brother's own accounts of what happened December 9, 1981 not given until 2001. Kenneth Freeman, a friend of Mumia's brother from childhood claims that he was coerced by the police into killing Faulkner because Faulkner was an FBI informant. He claims several other police officers were present at the scene to insure the hit happened. "Numerous other signs point to the likelihood that Faulkner was indeed an informant. Faulkner was, after all, a good, young police officer stationed in the most corrupt police precinct in a police department rife with corruption..... In the unlikely event that Faulkner was killed because he was a police informant, however, he would not have been the first or the last Philadelphia police officer during the early 1980's to die under circumstances suggesting a directed 'hit.'"

(A personal observation.... O'Connor describes Faulkner as so good, but at the very moment he was killed he was beating Mumia's brother in the face and stomach with a large heavy police issue flashlight.)

Abu-Jamal petitioned in 2001 claming the prosecution had violated his Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments rights by denying him, thru the deliberate purging of blacks from the jury and his right to be tried by a jury of his peers. On the grounds that purging a jury on the basis of race is unconstitutional, Abu-Jamal is absolutely entitled to a new trial. "The prosecution simply has no case left against Abu-Jamal. There was never any ballistic evidence or fingerprints to tie Abu-Jamal to the shooting." O'Connor concludes the vendetta for Abu-Jamal carried by the district attorney's office should not be underestimated. Unfortunately, to insure "the truth about the death of one of Philadelphia's best police officers remain the secret the D.A.'s office has kept all along... it most likely will file appeal after appeal to postpone the new trial, to delay the inevitable hour when Mumia Abu-Jamal will walk free."